The development of software for graphical user interfaces (GUI) has traditionally been a complex and time consuming process. Developers have to write extensive source code, often using cryptic software languages having little resemblance to English in order to provide a graphical interface which is responsive to a user's needs. However, it is often not possible to predict all the needs of the user and provide native graphical display capabilities in a computer program which permits the user of the program to access all the information desired in a manner most suited to the user's needs. Further, it is often times not possible to provide all the functionality which a user could conceivably require in a graphical user interface of a display application. For example, a network administrator who is responsible for administering the large volume of information associated with a computer network often needs flexible graphic displays to facilitate the effective and efficient management of this network. Network software providers have attempted to fill this need by providing graphical display management applications for accessing the information associated with the network such that the network administrator can view and modify this information as appropriate. However, often times the network administrator is in need of displaying information and accessing unique functions which are not supported by the network management application but which are necessary for the administration of the network.
Software Development Kits (SDKs) can be provided which permit the network administrator to customize, in a limited way, the graphic display of the network management application so that information and functionalities unsupported by the network management application can be viewed and modified. Using SDKs, for instance, the network administrator can add a new dialog window with corresponding functionality to process its messages. Even in these cases however, the network administrator is limited to displaying the information according to the display configurations defined by the network management application which owns the display. As such, there is a need to provide processes and apparatuses which are capable of creating non-native displays for use with a display application, such as a network management application, which can be configured by a third party as desired while still retaining the functionality supplied by the native or host display application.